UK police foil plot to kidnap Blair's son says paper

LONDON - British police have foiled a plot to kidnap Prime Minister Tony Blair's 5-year-old son Leo, the Sun newspaper reported today.

Citing an unnamed security source, the tabloid newspaper said people on the fringe of a group which campaigns for the rights of divorced fathers had planned to snatch the child and hold him for a short period.

It said it had no details of how the group planned to carry out the kidnapping. Spokesmen for Blair's office and London police had no immediate comment.

The newspaper said detectives uncovered the plan while monitoring people on the fringe of the Fathers 4 Justice campaign group just before Christmas.

The group has staged a series of high-profile stunts to highlight the plight of fathers who are denied access to their children.

Its campaigners have scaled the walls of Queen Elizabeth's London residence and thrown colored flour at Blair while he addressed parliament.

The group's founder, Matt O'Connor, 38, said his group was not behind the alleged plot.

However, he said about 30 former members had been expelled last year for talking about carrying out extreme stunts.

"We were aware that there were more extremist elements and we acted within our organization to clean the undesirable element out," he told Reuters.

He said police had told him that detectives had visited former members of his group over Christmas.

The Sun said police had made no arrests.

"It was good intelligence work," the Sun quoted an intelligence source as saying. "Fortunately we think we have nipped this thing in the bud."

- REUTERS